Lifestyle...not exercise

How many times a day could you count to ten?

Standing at the kettle, waiting for it to boil. Waiting for the pop tarts to leap out of the toaster. Waiting for the shower to get hot. Waiting for adverts to finish telling you how much you want those mop slippers. Waiting is a lot of time wasted. Add that to walking up the stairs! Picking up the children's toys or all of your partner's clothes from the bedroom floor. They're so bloody messy, aren't they? But you can use this to your advantage.

The nuts and bolts of exercise is 'movement'. That's it. Take away the gym plan sheets, the lycra and floor mat and you simply have a body that is moving through ranges of motion. When you get a personal trainer in, or press play on a fitness DVD, you are simply making that choice to get up off your butt and MOVE. These movements align your body to stress your muscles, increase your heart rate and develop muscle tone, with minimal risk of injury. You'll find them littered all over the internet as “Exercises you can do anywhere”, but too often, we think that means we should use them for a structured, planned and convenient home workout. Yes, do that....but at the end of your fitness session, don't revert to lazy, muscle straining movement.

What I'd like to challenge you to do is incorporate beneficial movement into your daily life...and do away with the waiting. Put it in the bin with those nasty back bends you do when picking up laundry or shopping bags from the floor.

An example:

Visualise what you're doing when you bend at the back during a house tidy. As you bend, your lower back (most likely twisting to the side) is becoming strained -especially as you pick up the weight, such as a shopping bag. With a complete misalignment of your body and with your lower back engaging to pull the weight up to waist level, not only are you straining and risking injuring yourself, you are also missing a great opportunity to engage one of your largest muscle groups -in a healthy, beneficial and productive way. Visualise the same house tidy. Your partner's stinky socks and clothes are strewn over the bedroom floor. You're mad, understandably, but you're going to have to sort it out. Rather than huff and back bend, SQUAT! 

--Face forward, engage your core, feet a little wider than shoulder-width apart and flat, toes facing forward, or outward in a plie position, keep your torso tall, bend your knees and push your bum back as though you're about to sit in a chair. Grab that sock. Now power through your legs, engaging your quads until your legs are straight, squeeze your glutes (bum) at the top of the movement.

Bending your legs is the way you're supposed to reach items on the floor. It's in every workplace and health and safety guide....for a reason! You don't want to injure yourself. Ten items on the floor equals ten squats....free of injury risk AND you're engaging your buttocks, thighs, calves, hamstrings and lower back. . That's what they're for. Day to day FUNCTION. Build in lunges as you walk around picking up the children's toys or to the kitchen for a coffee. Waiting at the kettle? My favourite is to do ten press ups or do tricep dips on the worktop.

Walking up the stairs? Skip every other step to increase the height that you'll be lifting your body, engage your core and power through your legs. A flight of twelve steps and you've just done six step ups that will more effectively use and tone your legs and bum. You were going up there anyway, so why not do it with an engaged core, correct breathing and alignment. That same flight of stairs could give you twelve calf raises.

Whether you're building correct and beneficial movement into what you're doing anyway, such as climbing the stairs or tidying up, or whether you're utilising more effectively the time you have waiting for a cup of tea, YOU CAN DO MORE. Just do something! This isn't going to get you ripped as a stand alone method, of course, but it just makes sense, for safety and for day to day benefit.  Okay, it may look a little odd...but don't say you never sing into your hairbrush in the privacy of your own home!  Your home is the place where you can look as stupid as you look and you're only subject to your own judgement; so naked star jumps while your shower warms up isn't an issue. 

Needless to say, safety is always important. Don't go crazy at the kettle, you're not warmed up. If you can't balance well on the stairs with calf raises and don't have a rail, find something else to do. But have fun, be productive and make the most of your time. Not only will you decrease your risk of injury and strain in your day to day movement, but you'll benefit your muscle tone and physique.